Day: June 14, 2009

I posted some “tightwaddery” posts several times around the turn of the year, when the portents of the economic times we now face–rather, that anyone with more active brain cells than a head of cabbage can see we face–were strong, though still straws in the wind compared to what The 0! and his evil minions in Congress and his cabinet have now wrought. Although I’ve let the posts fall off, my exercises in tightwaddery have continued apace.

Here’s a lil mini-micro-nano tightwad tip: can lids. Plastic containers constantly wear out, become damaged or simply wander off in the hands of family members. As our menus have become more contrained, with only two or sometimes three family members eating here at any one time, semi-convenient foods, such as canned tomato sauces that can be enhanced with additional spices, herbs or vegetables into something edible and nutritious, are becoming more common in our fare. But. Small amounts as used for two-person meals can be more expensive when bought in small containers, so larger containers that are less expensive per unit of food are the “convenience tightwad” choice. But how to conveniently store, say, half a 26-oz can of pasta sauce? Well, most folks’d store the leftover sauce–not yet customized for a specific dish–in some sort of plastic container (that they’d later have difficulty cleaning the tomato sauce off), but not me. You see, I’ve collected a variety of plastic lids–from some beer making supplies, cans of “wasabi” peas, and even yogurt containers. The lids from the “wasabi” (really just horseradish-seasoned) peas fit perfectly on the 26-oz pasta sauce cans and enable safe storage for a day or so until next use. Other lids fit other cans, from dog food to black eye peas to cranberry sauce. And since all the cans are clearly labeled with WHAT they are, leftovers don’t wait long for usage.

Oh, and the “wasabi” pea cans themselves? Rings for poaching eggs, cooking perfectly round scones and even plaster molds for making some medallions for door trim (with the aid of some wax molds made from selected patterns).

Use a little imagination and you too may be able to dispense with some plastic storage containers. For “free” (cos you’ve already spent the $$ on the food the lids came off the cans the food was stored in).

Oh, for purists who insist on all their veggies coming straight from the vine/branch/whatever or at least being frozen: sure. If you can find, for example, fresh, ripe tomatoes have at it, but unless you pick them from your own vines, they’ll be neither fresh nor ripe when bought at the farmers’ market or your local grocery store. At least not both at once. Same for corn or beans or whatever. (If you’ve ever tasted corn fresh from the stalk, you’d know what I’m talking about. Amazing stuff.)

But speaking of…

For fresh foods, even if you have as little arable land as we have here in “rocky bottom” neighborhood, America’s Third World County, you can still economically grow food in pots, especially if you compost leftover vegetative matter from your kitchen and yard. I have some peppers (Habanero and Caribbean Red) that’ll be a hearty addition to meals later this summer, if we don’t get too much rain. (*sigh* These kindsa peppers are better with less rain than we’ve been getting. I’m a little afraid they’ll turn out whimpier than I’d like.) And you know, don’t you, that a handfull of pinto beans–the kind most likely to be used with a beans n cornbread meal or in a nice chili n beans meal–will likely sprout for you and either grow more beans for you or be a perfectly acceptable substitute for expensive bean sprouts from the grocery store. I have friends who planted a perach seed and have since–several years later–gotten some good peaches from it. Better soil than I have, but still…

Encourage volunteer pecans and walnuts, usually planted by absent-minded squirrels, to grow and reap the rewards in 10-20 years.

Plant window boxes with herbs. Harvest and eat volunteer plants like dandelions or “possum” grapes. No, one doesn’t get a lot of sustenance from any one small contribution of such volunteer vegetation, but they can make a very nice addition to meal times. But plant gardens that need lots of weeding and watering? Not me. I’ll plant things that’ll grow with little or no attention from me or use volunteer growth. My time’s simply more useful elsewhere, and I won’t pay money to water some fussy lil plant that’s not meant for my climate and can’t survive without constant attention.

Now, if only I could kill off the rest of my grass and get more useful plants like dandelions to volunteer in its place… Heck, maybe I’ll break down and buy dandelion seed. 😉